Radiant flooring heating systems have been employed in office, industrial, as well as residential environments. Radiant flooring heating systems generally work by disposing heating elements within the flooring of a building. The heat from the heated elements radiate through the floor, heating the space of the building above the flooring. In many instances, radiant flooring heating systems can provide greater comfort and energy efficiency as compared to forced-air and other types of heating systems.
One type of radiant flooring heating system is the hydronic radiant flooring heating system. In a hydronic radiant flooring heating system, a pipe, piping, a tube, or tubing, disposed under the floor carries heated liquid. The pipe is disposed under the floor in a serpentine manner, such that different sections of the pipe are positioned near one another. The heated liquid, which may be water or another type of liquid, radiates heat through the floor, heating the space of the building above the flooring. Hydronic radiant flooring systems can be powered by gas, oil, electricity, or solar energy to heat the liquid, making them flexible and economical.
A downside to hydronic radiant flooring heating systems is that the pipe sections generally have to be positioned relatively close together to ensure uniform heating of the flooring, which is typically required for comfort reasons. However, positioning the pipe sections close together results in relatively large lengths of piping being needed to construct a hydronic radiant flooring system. Increasing the lengths of the piping results in greater labor and material costs. Failure rates of piping also increase as the length of the piping increases. Because the piping is embedded within concrete, making repairs on the piping in case of failure is difficult and expensive to accomplish.
Furthermore, extended piping lengths can cause pressure drops from the point of entry of the liquid into the pipe to the most distant point of the pipe at which the liquid is carried. Such pressure drops can result in the hydronic radiant flooring heating system performing inefficiently. A limited solution is to increase the diameters of the pipe, but doing so increases the cost of the hydronic radiant flooring heating system, and further requires larger turning radii of the pipe during installation in a serpentine manner.
For these and other reasons, therefore, there is a need for the present invention.